Color by Letter Free Printable

Every square holds a letter and the key gives each letter a crayon. Start with b, d, p and q.

Sample list: b d p q. Type or paste your own letters to replace it.

Name Date

Color by letter: Panda

Read the letter in each square, then color it by the key. q means leave the square white.

bbbbbbbbbbbb
bpppbbbbpppb
bpppqqqqpppb
bpqqqqqqqqpb
bqqppqqppqqb
bqpppqqpppqb
bqppqqqqppqb
bqqqqppqqqqb
bqddqppqddqb
bbqqpqqpqqbb
bbbqqppqqbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbb

To color on screen, choose a color in the key, then tap the squares.

Panda, 12 by 12, 3 colors, 4 letters in the list.

Answer key: prints on page 2.

More options
Pictures, with the letters each one takes
Size

One for each color, so type at least as many letters as the picture has colors. Up to 40, of 8 letters or fewer. Saved in this browser only.

The link carries the picture and the settings, never your letters.

Print gives a blank worksheet, and the colored answer key on page 2 when that box is ticked. Colors you fill in on screen stay on screen. By keyboard: the arrow keys move around the grid, Enter colors a square and Backspace clears it.

Next step Trace the same letters, capital and smallMixing up b and d? Trace a page of b

How it works

This color by letter free printable opens on a panda with b, d, p and q in its squares. Pick one of 7 look-alike letter lists or the vowels, or type your own letters, choose from 8 pictures, and print.

Read the full guide

Four letters fill every picture

Each picture has 3 colors, so a sheet needs 4 letters: one for each color and one for white. Seven lists group letters that look alike in print, such as m n u w and h m n r; the eighth is the vowels. A list of 5 or 6, like f i j l t, puts a changing 4 on each sheet.

Put the target letter on the big color

On the Panda at 12 by 12, one letter lands in 54 green squares and another in 4 pink ones. Press Shuffle the letters until the letter you teach sits on green. Four letters deal 24 ways, so one picture makes up to 24 sheets.

  • Squares print 14 mm at 12 by 12, with letters near 22 point, and 10.5 mm at 16 by 16.
  • Two letters fit a square at the same size, so sh, ch, th and wh make a digraph sheet.
  • Your device's font draws the letters. Check a and g on screen: some fonts draw shapes children do not write.

Questions and answers

Can I make a color by letter sheet with capital letters?

Yes. Type capitals in the Your letters box, such as B D P Q, and they print as typed. B and b cannot share a sheet, because the second is dropped as a repeat. The alphabet tracing sheets show both forms side by side.

Which picture is easiest for preschool or kindergarten?

The Yo-yo is the quickest, with 46 squares to color at 12 by 12, where the Tiger has 100. Untick A word in the white squares too and a sheet uses 3 letters, with the white squares left empty.

Why does the printed sheet say Color by word?

The heading and the instruction line are fixed today: every sheet from this page is headed Color by word and says Read the word in each square. The squares hold single letters. Tell pupils that on this sheet each word is one letter.

All 8 pictures

Animals 3

  • Panda A panda face with black ears, black eye patches and pink cheeks. The background is green, so the white face shows up on white paper. Easy 12 by 12, 94 squares to color: black 36, green 54, pink 4. Detailed 16 by 16, 150 squares to color: black 62, green 80, pink 8.
  • Tiger An orange tiger face with black stripes, pink ears and a pink nose. It leaves the fewest white squares of any picture here, so it takes the longest to color. Easy 12 by 12, 100 squares to color: orange 70, black 22, pink 8. Detailed 16 by 16, 180 squares to color: orange 128, black 40, pink 12.
  • Toucan A black toucan with a yellow face and bib and a long orange bill with a black tip. Easy 12 by 12, 68 squares to color: black 45, orange 12, yellow 11. Detailed 16 by 16, 127 squares to color: black 79, orange 23, yellow 25.
Show all 8 pictures (5 more)

Food 2

  • Avocado Half an avocado: dark green skin, light green flesh and a brown pit in the middle. Green and light green get two different letters, so the key has to be read with care. Easy 12 by 12, 88 squares to color: green 28, light green 44, brown 16. Detailed 16 by 16, 166 squares to color: green 46, light green 94, brown 26.
  • Taco A yellow taco shell seen from the side, with green lettuce and red tomato along the top edge. Easy 12 by 12, 80 squares to color: yellow 56, green 15, red 9. Detailed 16 by 16, 136 squares to color: yellow 90, green 35, red 11.

Things 3

  • Crayon A crayon lying on its side: purple at both ends, a yellow wrapper with two black bands, and the purple zigzag it has just drawn underneath. Easy 12 by 12, 52 squares to color: purple 24, yellow 20, black 8. Detailed 16 by 16, 102 squares to color: purple 42, yellow 48, black 12.
  • Sock A blue sock with a red cuff, heel and toe and yellow stripes up the leg. Easy 12 by 12, 83 squares to color: blue 49, yellow 10, red 24. Detailed 16 by 16, 145 squares to color: blue 84, yellow 18, red 43.
  • Yo-yo A red yo-yo with a yellow center on a black string with a finger loop. It has the most white squares of any picture here, so it is the quickest to color. Easy 12 by 12, 46 squares to color: red 32, yellow 5, black 9. Detailed 16 by 16, 83 squares to color: red 58, yellow 11, black 14.

How this list was compiled: Own original pixel pictures, drawn square by square for this page on 12 by 12 and 16 by 16 grids. Every picture has exactly 3 colors, so 4 letters fill a sheet: one for each color and one for the white squares. The descriptions say what is drawn and make no claim about the real animal or object. Licence: own work

All 26 letters

b d p q 4

  • b A tall stick first, then the ball on its right. Flip it left to right and it is d. Flip it top to bottom and it is p.
  • d The ball first, then the tall stick on its right. The mirror image of b.
  • p A stick that goes below the line first, then the ball on its right. Flip it left to right and it is q.
  • q The ball first, then a stick on its right that goes below the line. The mirror image of p, and b turned upside down.
Show all 26 letters (22 more)

m n u w 4

  • m Two humps. With one hump fewer it is n, and upside down it looks like w.
  • n One hump. Upside down it looks like u, and with a tall stick it is h.
  • u A vowel. A cup that opens upward. Upside down it looks like n.
  • w Two points at the bottom. Upside down it looks like m.

h m n r 2

  • h A tall stick with one hump. Shorten the stick and it is n.
  • r A short stick with a small arm at the top right. Let the arm grow into a full hump and it is n.

f i j l t 5

  • f A tall letter with a hook at the top and a crossbar. The letter t has the crossbar too, but its curve is at the foot.
  • i A vowel. A short stick with a dot. Lose the dot and it can pass for l.
  • j A dotted stick that carries on below the line and hooks to the left. The letter i stops at the line.
  • l A tall plain stick. In many screen fonts it looks the same as a capital I, so keep a typed capital I off the same sheet.
  • t A stick with a crossbar and a curve at the foot. In most fonts it is shorter than l and f.

a c e o s 5

  • a A vowel. Printed fonts often give it a roof over the bowl, while handwriting uses a ball and a short stick, so check that the sheet matches what your class writes.
  • c An open curve. Close the gap and it is o. Add a bar across the middle and it is e.
  • e A vowel. A c with a bar across the middle that closes the top half.
  • o A vowel. A closed ring, the same whichever way the paper is turned.
  • s A double curve, the same shape as the capital S, only smaller.

k v w x y z 5

  • k A tall stick with two slanting arms, one going up and one going down.
  • v Two slanting lines that meet in a point at the bottom. Two of them side by side make w.
  • x Two slanting lines that cross in the middle. The same shape as the capital X.
  • y A v whose right-hand line carries on below the line as a tail.
  • z A zigzag: across, down on a slant, and across again. The same shape as the capital Z.

g j p q y 1

  • g A ball with a tail that hangs below the line and hooks to the left. Some printed fonts use a g with two loops, which children do not write.

How this list was compiled: The 26 small letters of the English alphabet, in groups of our own: 7 sets of letters that look alike in print (one shape flipped or turned, the same humps, the same slants, a tail below the line) and the 5 vowels. The notes describe the usual printed sans-serif shape; the exact shapes of a, g, l and t depend on the font of the device that prints the sheet. That children show mirror writing while they are learning to write was checked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_writing on 2026-09-19; this page makes no claim about what a reversed letter means for any one child. Licence: own work

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